Today, we’d like to say “thank you” to the Lynn and Helen Clark Fund for their recent grant of $1,000 for the
Charles Family SmartHome in Longmont.
The Lynn and Helen Clark Fund is Fund is administered by
Guaranty Bank in Longmont, and was created to benefit individuals living in the
St. Vrain Valley School District.
The Lynn and Helen Clark Fund grant will support one of Imagine!’s most ambitious projects. Over the past five years, Imagine! has built, and is currently operating, two SmartHomes. Imagine!’s SmartHomes provide permanent affordable housing for individuals with physical and developmental disabilities, and they incorporate cutting edge technologies to improve the quality and efficiency of services and supports for the residents.
As the first such homes in the nation, Imagine!’s SmartHomes are serving as a model for the future of residential care for people with developmental disabilities. They
enhance the lives and independence of residents,
augment the effectiveness of staff as caregivers, and
provide cost and energy savings to Imagine!.
In addition, the SmartHome model has enormous potential to impact groups of people with related concerns (dementia, autism, chronic mental illness, and Alzheimer’s), as the homes are serving as living laboratories to create and test “SmartSupports” – assistive technologies that can be used in family homes to keep individuals with any kind of cognitive impairment living in their own homes for as long as possible.
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Residents of the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome sign “thank
you” using American Sign Language.
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This is the third grant the Lynn and Helen Clark Fund has given to the Imagine! Foundation for a total of $4,000 in support of our SmartHomes over the years.
We are so grateful for their continued generosity.
Have you visited Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome resident Donna’s blog lately? She put up a new post earlier this week where she writes about what she did for her birthday, classes she’s taking through Imagine!’s CORE/Labor Source program, and why her job at In Clover is so important to her.
